Re-Energised, focussed and ready to go!

Just back from a 2 day "Executive Athlete Programme" and despite aching muscles am feeling quite chipper! The programme is designed to show how having a fit body and constant energy levels can improve your work performance.

I farmed out the children - Michael to stay with Glynis & Rob and Sam to stay with Jo, because the course started at 6.45 in the morning in Woodmead and finished at 5.15 which made taking and collecting kids from school very difficult for me.

The course started off by taking us to the gym - wieghing us, seeing how many press-ups, how many sit-ups, how far we could stretch etc and how much flab we had around the middle, the back and on our arms(!)- our biokinetic assessment. Needless to say I did not do very well in anything!

Then we received our PNI results - these are the results from a questionnaire plus a blood test. Well my blood test was shocking! Cholesterol at 6.9 (should be 4.5) and glucose levels on the borderline of becoming a diabetic. Stroke and heart attack on the horizon!

To recover from the gloomy news - which appeared to be common to most of us (18 people all from RMB) we went out for the recovery break - a session with the golf pro's - must say thwacking a golf ball can be very therapeutic - but only if you manage to hit it!

Lunch was very healthy - and left us feeling full (but thinking that a nice pudding would also have gone down well) and then in for a session with the nutritionist. How depressing - must eat regularly to maintain energy levels but what tiny portions, and how bad most things are for you! gloom and doom again so off to hit another half hours worth of golf balls! All very well to say we must eat snacks between meals but they are so tiny - less than a mouthfull!

Next day was back at the crack of dawn again for our healthy breakfast (fruit, yoghurt, ham and a boiled egg) and then in for a session with the sports psychologist. All about how the great athletes are so focussed, play strategically and can block out background distractions. Then off for, not golf but some stretching exercises - yipeee :(

A bit more about the mind of the athlete and then to the gym with the biokineticists for our individual execrcise programmes to make sure we can do them correctly. They asked what "wellness" means to us - I replied and said "Bad grammar!" I hate these bastardised words! This looks quite overwhelming - when am I meant to do all this twice a week?

After lunch - all of us consiously piling up the salad and veggies, back for a session of storytelling - had to insert our own personal experiences into the story and see what it revealed and how we were going to move forward.

Well, at the end they said to start things slowly - do one thing at a time and do it so that it becomes a habit. So this morning I had some breakfast, drank black rooibos and have a jug and glass of water on my desk - so I hope this is the start of the new healthy me.

On the family side of things Mum is still not eating and her blood sugar is fluctuating - no changes at the moment.